Liu Xuan ran a long way before the [Thunder Halo] stopped triggering automatically. Only after he was sure he had left the monster zone did he finally breathe a sigh of relief.
That was way too abnormal. Who would have thought there were monsters that terrifying?
Fortunately, he was fast enough. If he hadn’t had the speed, he had no idea how he would have made it through that stretch.
Those trees lining both sides of the road had all been [Tree Goblins].
He didn’t even dare imagine what would have happened if he had provoked them.
He continued hurrying forward and soon entered the next monster zone.
This time, however, the monsters weren’t spawning near the road. They were hidden in the surrounding woods instead.
As he ran past, he could occasionally hear the roars of beasts coming from within the forest.
“You’ve already greeted me, so wouldn’t it be a little rude not to come over and meet you?”
Liu Xuan memorized the different roars. Whenever he heard one that sounded different, he would charge into the woods.
“Open up! Stack the damage!”
If the roar sounded more or less the same as the others, he simply continued on his way.
He had nearly made it out of the forest when, in the middle of his sprint, Liu Xuan suddenly heard a voice. It sounded as though someone was speaking.
“Human...”
There should have been more after that, but Liu Xuan had already rushed past and didn’t hear the rest.
He stopped and looked back. All he saw was the thick, lush forest.
“Could I have imagined it?”
According to what Finch and the village chief had told him, there was very little chance of survivors remaining in the vast lands north of Orenburg.
That area had once been the main battlefield when the monsters invaded, and even now, powerful monsters could be found everywhere.
Even if anyone in those lands had survived, there was a good chance they had fled south of Orenburg.
Life in the south was difficult too, but at least the pressure of survival wasn’t quite as great.
Liu Xuan had just turned around to leave when a shout came from behind him again. This time, it sounded as though it came from a great distance away.
“Wait~~”
This time, he was certain he hadn’t misheard.
But when he looked back, there was still no sign of anyone.
Was he seeing ghosts in broad daylight?
“If you really have something to say, why hide? Why not come out and show yourself?”
Liu Xuan shouted toward the forest behind him while pricking up his ears and carefully determining the direction from which the voice had come.
“I’m right here~”
An elderly voice came from the woods several dozen meters away, on one side of the road. By the time it reached Liu Xuan, it was extremely faint.
No wonder it had sounded so unclear before.
Liu Xuan cautiously approached. In this northern region, the chances of encountering a friendly entity were rather low, so it was best to remain careful.
When he reached the spot where he had heard the voice, Liu Xuan looked left and right. All he saw in front of him was an ordinary stretch of forest. There wasn’t a person in sight.
Even the [Eye of Insight] didn’t reveal anything with a visible health bar.
He couldn’t help frowning. “My friend, are you still unwilling to come out?”
“I already have.”
This time, Liu Xuan heard clearly. The voice was coming from the tree in front of him.
But it wasn’t coming from the treetop. It was coming from the middle of the trunk.
Just as he was wondering about it, the thick trunk of the tree before him—nearly as wide as two people—suddenly bulged in one place and sank inward in another. Gradually, it formed the face of an old man, its features dry and wrinkled.
“Perhaps speaking with you like this is more convenient.”
The mouth on the bark moved up and down as the old man spoke slowly.
Liu Xuan stared in astonishment at the wooden face before him. No wonder he hadn’t been able to find anyone. Even the [Eye of Insight] had failed to detect him.
[Wilderness Soul]
Level: ???
Health: 1
Skills: [Spirit of Nature: A Wilderness Soul is an incorporeal existence with no fixed form. It can move by taking up residence in any plant.]
[Wise Teacher, Foolish Student: You may impart a branch of knowledge you possess to a Wilderness Soul in exchange for one branch of knowledge passed down to it by someone from a previous generation.]
The Wilderness Soul had no physical body. It was merely possessing the tree in front of him, which explained why the [Eye of Insight] hadn’t detected it earlier.
As for the [Wise Teacher, Foolish Student] skill, Liu Xuan more or less understood what it meant.
It was like a knowledge storage-and-exchange device. If you stored one piece of knowledge inside, you could exchange it for knowledge previously stored by someone else.
It looked somewhat similar to another tree Liu Xuan had encountered before—the [Fortune Tree].
That one also required him to trade something of his own.
However, he had no idea what kind of knowledge this Wilderness Soul could impart. Did skills count?
Moreover, he was puzzled that it had taken the initiative to call out to him.
Shouldn’t opportunities like this only come to those with the proper destiny?
Could they really just come knocking on their own?
Since the [Eye of Insight] had confirmed that the other party meant him no harm, Liu Xuan directly asked the question on his mind.
“May I ask why you called out to me?”
The Wilderness Soul looked at Liu Xuan, its aged voice calm and emotionless.
“A friend of yours, one of your fellow humans, once taught me a branch of knowledge. He asked for nothing in return. Instead, he told me to pass that knowledge on to the first human I encountered afterward.”
“So that person is me?”
“Yes.”
Liu Xuan hadn’t expected that he would be able to get a piece of knowledge for free. Someone else had already “paid” for it on his behalf.
“May I ask what kind of knowledge it is?”
“It is a language. The person who taught it to me called it the Destroyer Tongue. Would you like to learn it?”
Liu Xuan was somewhat surprised. It was actually the language of the Destroyers.
Previously, whenever he encountered a Destroyer, all he could hear was their incessant “hiss, hiss, hiss,” and he had no idea what they were saying.
He hadn’t expected that someone would actually understand their language.
“Of course.” He agreed immediately.
If he had known the Destroyers’ language, provoking the [Golden Blade Lord] earlier would have been much easier.
He was quite familiar with a few choice “curses” himself.
The Wilderness Soul gave a soft “Mm,” then slowly swayed its body. A leaf radiating a faint glow drifted down from the tree it inhabited.
Liu Xuan instinctively reached out and caught it. A cool sensation immediately flowed into his mind. In the blink of an eye, he discovered that he had mastered the Destroyers’ language.
It really was convenient.
If only he’d had a tree like this back when he was in school. The teachers could have uploaded the contents of the textbooks, and he could have exchanged them for... Hmm, game knowledge.
Still, there were probably certain limitations. It couldn’t be possible to upload the same piece of knowledge over and over, have someone else take it out, then upload it again and let another person take it.
Thinking of teachers, Liu Xuan suddenly felt that he should get to know the person who had indirectly passed this knowledge on to him. After all, he owed the man a favor.
“May I ask who uploaded this knowledge, and when?”
If it hadn’t been too long ago, perhaps that person was still hiding somewhere in this northern region.
The Wilderness Soul gently swayed its body.
“That human friend never introduced himself. He only described himself as an untalented apprentice of the curse arts. As for the time, it was eight years ago.”
Eight years ago... That was the year the Destroyers invaded.
Had he really been the first person to pass through this place in the last eight years?
If that person had truly been nothing more than an apprentice, then he was probably already dead.
end. Thus one must continue to cultivate, and become a saint or great emperor, in order to prolong one's life. Chen Xia, however, completely reversed this. Since his transmigration, he has gained immortality, and also a system that awards him with attribute points for every year he lives. Thus between the myriad worlds, the legend of an unparalleled senior appeared. "A gentleman takes revenge; it is never too late even after ten thousand years." "When you were at your peak I yielded, now in your old age I shall trample on you." - Chen Xia
e bizarre and supernatural had descended. The previous emperor was a thoroughgoing tyrant; no longer satisfied with human women, he had set his sights on a stunningly beautiful supernatural entity. He met his end in his bedchamber, drained of all his vital essence. As the legitimate eldest son and crown prince, Wang Hao was thus hastily enthroned, becoming the young emperor of the Great Zhou Dynasty. No sooner had he awakened the "Imperial Sign-In Intelligence System" than he was assassinated by a Son of Destiny—a classic villain's opening. The Great Zhou, ravaged by the former emperor's excesses, was in national decline. The great families within its borders harbored their own treacherous schemes, martial sects began to defy the imperial court's decrees, and border armies, their pay and provisions in arrears, grumbled incessantly against the central government. Fortunately, the central capital was still held secure by the half-million Imperial Guards and fifty thousand Imperial Forest Army who obeyed the court's orders, along with the royal family's hidden reserves of power, barely managing to suppress the realm. As the Great Zhou's finances worsened and supernatural activities grew ever more frequent, the court sat atop a volcano. Ambitious plotters everywhere dreamed of overthrowing the dynasty, and even some reclusive ancient powers emerged, attempting to sway the tides of the world. At the first grand court assembly, the civil and military officials nearly came to blows, fighting tooth and nail over the allocation of fifty million taels of silver from the summer tax revenues. The spectacle opened Wang Hao's eyes—the Great Zhou's bureaucracy was not only corrupt but also martially proficient, a cabinet of all-rounders. Some officials even had the audacity to suggest the emperor release funds from the imperial privy purse to address the emergency. Wang Hao suddenly felt weary. Let it all burn.
e vast world of cultivation, where he becomes the master of the Heavenly Ruins Sacred Hall, a dying old man with barely a tenth of his former cultivation remaining. He is immediately confronted with a deadly crisis: his subordinates have rebelled, and his protectors are forcing him to abdicate. At the critical moment, the system descends from the heavens: [Ding! The host has been detected facing a life-or-death crisis. The system is now officially activated!] [As a gift, you have received the Supreme Beginner’s Pack and awakened the ultimate cheat: ten thousand years of pure cultivation essence every second!] Yin Tianjue: “Wait… ten thousand years of cultivation every second? That’s six hundred thousand years a minute, and in one day… I can’t even calculate it. Either way, I’m already invincible!” You’re a peerless prodigy rarely seen in ten thousand years? Sorry, I gain ten thousand years of cultivation every second. You’re an undying ancestor who has guarded a sacred land for countless ages? Sorry, I gain ten thousand years of cultivation every second. You’re the strongest chosen one, blessed with heaven-defying destiny? Sorry, I gain ten thousand years of cultivation every second. From this day forth, I have only one thing to say: “I gain ten thousand years of cultivation every second. Now, how exactly are you supposed to deal with that?”
s the Eldest Princess, renowned for her cold and aloof detachment, became the most docile of lambs, obeying his every command without question. But when the final move was played on the chessboard, as Gu Chenghan seized everything and ascended on the verge of apotheosis, that very Princess suddenly embraced him from behind, her tone carrying a dependence never heard before: "Wait... you haven't yet... commanded me to love you forever." Gu Chenghan froze abruptly. She... hadn't been hypnotized?! ... [The Eldest Princess's Diary] [When my soul was extracted, becoming the sole spectator outside my own shell] [At first, there was overwhelming fury, until I saw] [How he used my sword to effortlessly shatter my inescapable doom] [How he wielded my authority to eradicate fatal conspiracies I had never even detected] [Like a deity, he rescued me from the deep mire I was trapped in] [If not for those annoying vixens, he and I would be a match made in heaven] [I think I am ill, gravely ill] [My deity should belong to me alone] ... "Hypnosis? Oh, it succeeded, my dear Master." "Only this time, it's my turn to hypnotize you."
